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A Birmingham independent pub has won a David versus Goliath battle after a PR nightmare for big brand BrewDog - backing out of a legal threat over the name "Lone Wolf".

Owners of the independent pub were forced to change its name after being threatened with legal action by BrewDog. But they have been left stunned by a tweet sent out by the pub giant’s co-founder saying they are now free to use their old name Lone Wolf.

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After the backlash over BrewDog's “bullying attitude” to Birmingham independent Lone Wolf because BrewDog had a new brand of vodka also called Lone Wolf, co-founder James Watt tweeted: "Our lawyers got a bit trigger happy. We are happy for the Lone Wolf bar in Birmingham to keep using the name”.

Earlier this year, the craft beer company which has a pub in John Bright Street, and prides itself on promoting a “punk anti corporate ethos” said it would take the new bar to court if it didn’t change its name.

Joshua McFadyen from Sheldon opened Lone Wolf on Constitution Hill with his sister Sallie in January 2017. Speaking to The Birmingham Mail a couple of hours after the tweet, he said: “We saw the tweet just like everyone else - there’s been no other communication apart from the lawyers' letters.

"And we were not even tagged in the tweet. Its seems it’s all been done for PR purposes after all the bad press they were getting.

BrewDog Birmingham

“Otherwise why didn’t we get notification beforehand? It would have been nice if they had got in touch with us directly before sending out the tweet. “

The U-turn comes too late - a month after Joshua and Sallie have already forked out over three thousand pounds on rebranding - including new signage for the pub after BrewDog's first cease and desist letter was sent.

Joshua added: “ We’ve had to go through the stress of having the threat of legal action hanging over us, and the hassle and expense of changing the name to The Wolf including all exterior signage, promotion and social media- not to mention having to pay for legal representation to respond to their cease and desist letters. It’s all cost us a few thousand pounds.

“Getting a new business off the ground is hard enough. We ploughed all our savings into launching Lone Wolf, then had to pay for legal letters and rebranding and now a month later we’re told we can change it back. It’s laughable really.”

James Watt, in another move some have branded purely PR driven, also tweeted he is sending the pub, crates of BrewDog's Lone Wolf brand of vodka.

Joshua told us: “I don’t want it.”

Many have rushed to Twitter to denounce BrewDog owner’s “attempt at damage limitation" following heavy criticism of his company for forcing the name change - particularly in light of their self proclaimed “ punk anti corporate attitude.”

Others tweeted they would boycott the Scottish brewery company due to their “shameful bullying” of the family run independent.

Lone Wolf received a cease and desist letter on January 27 from Brewdog - a week after the pub opened.

The Lone Wolf is now The Wolf bar (Image: Sanjeeta Bains)

Joshua said: “We were shocked as we’d registered the Lone Wolf name for our bar over a year ago, although we didn't think to trademark because we thought it was just a building.

"We got some legal advice and were told we had a good case to take it to court but as we had spent all our money on launching the bar - and with all the other costs involved, we had nothing left to fight their lawyers.

“After they sent a second letter demanding we take immediate action we began the arduous process of changing the name to The Wolf including signage and everything else.”

And up until James Watt’s tweet, Joshua and Sallie believed the matter still hadn’t been resolved to BrewDog’s satisfaction.

“We got another letter from their lawyers saying that the changes we made to the bar branding were not enough and they want us to also change our company name which we registered a year before they trademarked their vodka,” explained Joshua. “ That was the last we heard from BrewDog until this tweet. "

“This could have all been avoided with a simple phone call early on rather than the heavy handed way they dealt with us.”

Sallie told us: " We did feel bullied at the time.

She added: “We’ve come round to the name change now but was a bit hypocritical to make a lot of public statements saying how much they support independents and they don’t like a big corporate attitude. It seemed to go against what they stand for."

BrewDog’s stance against the independent was all the more surprising considering they have been on their receiving end of infringement accusations in the past.

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On the BrewDog website they state: “Here at BrewDog, we don’t take too kindly to petty pen pushers attempting to make a fast buck by discrediting our good name under the guise of copyright infringement.”

As recently as least year the brand was warned that it could face legal action by Wolverhampton Wanderers football club as the Lone Wolf branding is similar to the club’s badge.

Birmingham pubs guide

The Birmingham Mail received the following statement from James Watt, co-founder at BrewDog: “It appears our lawyers did what lawyers do and got a bit carried away with themselves, asking the owners of the new ‘Lone Wolf’ bar to change its name, as we own the trademark. Now we’re aware of the issue, we’ve set the lawyers straight and asked them to sit on the naughty step to think about what they’ve done.

"Of course, we’re more than happy for the Lone Wolf bar to use the name. To make up for the confusion, we’ll be sending them a case of LoneWolf vodka and LoneWolf gin before we launch officially. We’ll even give them a year’s supply of gin and vodka at 50 per cent discount to show we mean well.

"If they prefer their new name of The Wolf, we’re cool with that too. The offer still stands of course.

Although they wear suits and are mostly sensible folks, lawyers can sometimes go a bit crazy and forget the kind of business we are and how we behave. They are sorry for their actions and we have put them on washing up duty for a week.”